either before the ship anchored there or after she had come to anchor. If before, then the ship was placed over the explosive by the Spaniards; if afterward, then the explosive was placed under the ship,-certainly not by the Americans. The conclusion as to instrumentality is obvious.

And the belief that it was a Spanish crime, the result of Spanish treachery, grew upon the country and the world as time passed by, and the Spanish character came more clearly to light under the scrutiny of civilized peoples.

Courts of inquiry were instituted, one by the United States government and one by the Spanish government; the former to ascertain the truth of the matter, the latter to keep the truth as far away as possible. It all turned upon one question, Was the ship blown up from the inside or from the outside? If the former, it was an accident, for which no one outside the ship's officers and crew could be held responsible; if the latter, it was a consequence pointing to some Weyler or de Lome as the origin. The American commissioners decided that the vessel was blown up from the outside; naturally, the Spanish commissioners decided that the vessel was blown up from the inside. Yet in all the discussions of the Cuban situation by congress and the cabinet, the Maine catastrophe was so far as possible set aside. However the matter stood in men's minds, it was a fact not proved, and the treatment of the main issue must be determined from its own evidence.

Armed intervention for the pacification of Cuba was now the sentiment of a large majority of the American people. There was no escape from the war. The Spaniards in Cuba were a mediæval horror. Again and again remonstrances had been sent to Spain, but to no avail. Equivocation and procrastination were all the satisfaction that could be wrung from Spaniards. They objected to any interference on the part of the United States, promised a more lenient course, and an immediate termination of the difficulties, but did nothing. The relief of the suffering Cubans roused a spirit of resentment, culminating in riots in Havana. And because Consulgeneral Lee had faithfully reported to his government the Spanish atrocities, and because foreseeing trouble he had advised all Americans in Cuba to return to the United States, on the 5th of March the Spanish authorities requested the consul's recall, which request was refused by the United States

government; but on the 7th of April, fearing for his safety, he was ordered home, the archives of the American consulate to be turned over to the British consul. The same day, on behalf of the European powers, a joint communication was presented to President McKinley by the diplomatic representatives of France, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Great Britain, Russia, and Italy expressing a hope that affairs between Spain and the United States might be amicably adjusted. The president replied that he hoped it might be so.

On the 11th of April the president laid before congress a brief history of a half-century of Cuban insurrections. He spoke of the losses to American interests, the barbarous methods which had shocked the sensibilities and offended the humane sympathies of the American people, and of the efforts made by the United States to mediate between Spain and her revolted colonies, all of which were spurned by the Spanish government. "The war continued unabated," the president goes on to say. "The resistance of the insurgents was in no wise diminished. The efforts of Spain were increased, both by the dispatch of fresh levies to Cuba and by the addition to the horrors of the strife of a new aid in human phase happily unprecedented in the modern history of civilized Christian peoples. The policy of devastation and concentration inaugurated by the captain-general's bando of October 21, 1896, in the province of Pinar del Rio, was thence extended to embrace all of the island to which the power of Spanish arms was able to reach by occupation or by military operations. The peasantry, including all dwelling in the open agricultural interior, were driven into the garrison towns of isolated places held by the troops. The raising and movement of provisions of all kinds were interdicted. The fields were laid waste, dwellings unroofed and fired, mills destroyed, and in short everything that could desolate the land and render it unfit for human habitation or support was commanded by one or the other of the contesting parties, and executed by all the powers at their disposal. Long trial has proved that the object for which Spain has waged war cannot be attained. The fire of insurrection may flame or may smolder with varying seasons, but it has not been and it is plain that it cannot be extinguished by present methods. The only hope of relief and repose from a condition which can no longer be endured is the enforced

pacification of Cuba. In the name of humanity, in the name of civilization, in behalf of endangered American interests which give us the right and the duty to speak and to act, the war in Cuba must stop."

Thereupon the president asked power from congress to put an end to the conflict, and secure a stable government for the island, using for the purpose the military and naval forces of the United States according to necessity. The request was granted.

One of three lines of action the president believed the United States government should take, recognition of the insurgents as belligerents, recognition of the independence of Cuba, or intervention on behalf of civilization and humanity. One answer sufficed to dismiss the first two propositions, namely, that Cuba was unfit for self-government, not possessing the essential attributes of statehood, without which neither belligerency nor independence were admissible.

Congress passed resolutions declaring Cuba to be free; disclaiming any intention to exercise sovereignty in the island except for its pacification; demanding the retirement of Spain, and directing the president to enforce these measures with the entire land and naval forces of the republic. The ultimatum, that Spain must immediately relinquish authority and withdraw her force from Cuba, was cabled to the American minister at Madrid on the 20th of April, and diplomatic relations were severed.

"We may be very sure that the island will not be pacified until ready for annexation," was Spain's sapient and perhaps unusually truthful reply.

On receiving notification from the state department of the action of the president, and of the ultimatum sent to Minister Woodford at Madrid, the Spanish minister, Polo y Bernabe, who had succeeded de Lome at Washington, requested his passport, and took train for Canada on the evening of the 20th. Before Woodford was able to present the ultimatum on the morning of the 21st, he received a note from the Spanish minister for foreign affairs terminating diplomatic relations,—so eager were the Spaniards to be accredited with striking the first blow.

Spain's declaration of war came in form of the dismissal of Minister Woodford, severing diplomatic relations. Accord

ing to the federal constitution, the sole power in the United States to declare war rests in congress; in Great Britain and most other monarchal governments it is the exclusive prerogative of the crown. It is the province of the president of the United States to recommend or discourage a declaration of war, but it is a question for congress to determine. Hence on the 25th the president asked congress to give legality to the acts of the government by declaring war to have existed on and after the 21st; which was done, the state department notifying the foreign powers, most of which promptly proclaimed neutrality.

CHAPTER IV

NEW NAVAL TACTICS

CAPTURE or destroy the Spanish fleet," said the president. "I will wipe it from the ocean," the commodore replied. With these words was initiated a new era in the world's development, involving a course of events, broad in influence as the earth, and as far reaching as time.

The place was Mirs bay, near Hongkong, and the day the 26th of April, 1898.

War for the deliverance of Cuba had been declared, but the world was scarcely looking for the first demonstration to appear on the coast of Asia. Commodore George Dewey, however, in command of the United States squadron at Hongkong, had been momentarily expecting some such word from the president ever since the breaking off of diplomatic relations on the 21st of April, though war was not declared until the 25th. The squadron had withdrawn from Hongkong at the request of the governor general.

Dewey was ready. He had been in command of the Asiatic squadron since January, had thought matters well over, and his plans were fully matured. A coat of war paint had been given the ships, and the white squadron had changed in color to a dark drab. A cargo of coal which had lately arrived in the British steamer Nanshan from Cardiff, had been bought, with the ship that carried it, care having been taken to make this purchase before the commencement of hostilities and the declaration of England's neutrality should prevent it. The steamer Zafiro, of the Manila and Hongkong line, was also purchased, and the spare ammunition placed on board of her, the crews of both vessels being reshipped under the United States flag.

The American fleet consisted of nine ships, four protected cruisers of the second class, gunboats, one revenue cutter, and